Hi I have a musical fidelity Vdac, which I am using with the following

Arcam CD73T Opto digital

Denon TU1800DAB tuner   coax digital 

Imac USB.

The problem I am getting is when the Imac is connected via USB I am getting some noise from the Imac / earth loop. I am using a 5 meter usb cable ( cheap cable, but it digital). Is there anything I can do to cut the noise, the DAC and all HIFI is plugged into a tacima mains filter. The Imac is not , but I am not sure that will help, I guess its from the Imac psu.

As I am not sure the dac improves the Arcam , I am think of using the Mac via my airport express into the Vdac opto, which will be ok.

Has anyone got any other Ideas ?

Thanks

Perhaps you can try to isolate the problem a bit further, to see if indeed the imac usb ground is causing the problem:

- Do you also get is with a short usb cable?

- Any difference if you remove the tacima filter?

HI I have tried that thanks, the noise was the same. I guess its the Imac PSU/fan. Will the quality be the same with the Airport express into the opto on the Vdac ?

thanks

USB is a bad way to connect a computer to a hi-fi system.

Use an optical cable (which will also give you 24bit/96kHz abilities), or wireless. 

Hi

I have a queation you may be able to answer.....i stream Spotify from my PC wirelessly (using Jamcast) to my PS3 and onto my Amp. Where does the D to A conversion happen? PC? PS3?

Cheers

wickerman68 its the ps3

 jpfreestyler im using a macmini via optical into a vdac and its noise free which is what youd expect as optical cant cause an earth loop

the ae is a wireless device using optical to the vdac so it cant introduce hum either and  the quality is the same as optical from the mac

id test with the optical cable which should be silent if the system still has earth hum then its another problem

id also disconnect the tuner to see if thats part of the problem 

ive heard the ps3 isnt so good so perhaps its an idea

what amp do you have it really depends on that

yes definitely although spotify isnt the greatest source

id be looking at benchmark or the new naim dac as a minimum if you wanted to go down the streaming lossless files route also but if you only use spotify you could get away with a cheaper dac seems a waste of a good amp though

what is the rest of your setup out of curiosity

lector 7T CDP

Nordost SPM

Graaf

Audience AU24

Art Emotion Speakers

Spotify is just for fun not critical listening

wickerman68:

Graaf

Spotify is just for fun not critical listening

figured you might have a system like that i can only dream

in that case go for something like the dacmagic, beresford or vdac you should notice an improvement over the ps3 with any of those

id still be tempted by the benchmark though as its better suited if ever you go down the lossless streaming road